Friday these beautiful red winged blackbirds stopped by our feeders for a little snack. They are usually the first birds to return in the spring. They are a week earlier this year than last year. Hopefully, that means an early spring. However, this morning was no indication that spring is on its way. Wind chill temperature -10 degrees with snow on the ground. Well, the snow is gone now and the wind chill now is 5 degrees so we are warming up some.

Not much going on here. I have started work on Sam’s quilt. I have all the 5 x 5 in. squares cut out and am ready to start sewing them together. School has went well this week. Did I mention to you all about the last batch of homemade laundry soap I made using the laundry bar soap instead of fels naptha? Well, those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that in the past I have had trouble with the homemade laundry soap. My clothes seem to get a dingy look and the towels became really non-absorbent. I know, strange stuff, but strange happens a lot here. I guess it is our water that causes these problems. Well, so far I have had no problems using this batch. It is a little bit different recipe than I have tried before but I think the real difference is using homemade laundry bar soap. I will try to remember to keep you all updating as to how it is doing.

Well, I better get busy. Church tonight and the menu is baked potato bar. Sounds delicious to me. I really like baked potatoes. Enjoy your Sunday and God bless.

Hello everyone! I thought I would show you all my new idea for selling the homemade laundry soap. This is what the package looked like before

I think I like the new ones better. I am hoping they will catch customers attention more. We’ll see.

Well, that’s my day. It took a little longer to sew these little packets than I first expected, plus we had to make up the laundry soap. All our soap had sold at the Bread Basket. Tomorrow is a big day for shoppers here in Floyd-the annual craft festival. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of aprons and laundry soap on hand for selling.

Okay, ladies, I need your opinion on this. You all may remember that I have been selling homemade laundry soap at the Bread Basket here in Floyd. The laundry soap is lavender scented. Well, I have been thinking about putting homemade lavender fabric softener with it for sale. What do you all think about this as a container for the fabric softener? I have been trying to think of a container that I could easily recycle. The less expense I have in the container the more my profit. This would be concentrated. The customer would need to add 3 cups water to it and it will yield 10 loads of laundry, the same amount as the laundry soap I sell. I have put these instructions on the card.

I have just discovered this product. Some of you ladies may already know about it but I had never heard of it. You all know that I have made my own laundry soap for years. I have always had trouble with it leaving my clothes looking dingy. I would make a batch and by the time I used it up my clothes would be looking like I hadn’t even washed them. YUCK! Then I would buy a box of store bought detergent and use it up so my clothes would look clean again. Then repeat the process. So I was reading on line and one of the recipes was saying you could add bluing to your detergent. What? I immediately jump up to the google bar and type in, “What is bluing?” It is something you add to your wash to make your white clothes remain white. You can buy it online. Our local supermarket carried it. Can you believe that? I had never even noticed it before. Well, as of right now, I am thinking it is the best thing since sliced bread. I have been using it for about 2 weeks. My whites are still white. I think I have found my solution. Also when using homemade laundry soap, my towels usually become water resistent. They would not absorp water. This has not happened since I started using the bluing. YEAH! I hope this post doesn’t sound like a commercial for bluing. I just wanted you ladies to know, in case any of you have been having the same problem. I also bit the bullet and purchased some lavender essential oil to add to it. I avoided buying it for years because, well, everything you add to it makes the cost go up more and I wanted to keep it cost effecient. But I really like for my clothes to smell nice after they have been washed. I admit it. I like smelly things (good smelly things).

I also tried something new today. I made my own fabric softener. The recipe I used is:

Directions:

Slowly add the vinegar to the bottle as the vinegar and baking soda will start to fizz.

Then add the rest of the water swirling around & cover venting the top a few times.

Last add the essential oil.

Add 1 cup in your final rinse cycle for each load but give the bottle a good shake to stir up the essential oil if using.

I got this recipe from food.com. I want to remind you all that baking soda and vinegar fizzes at lot when mixed together. Now, I knew this but for some reason I put my baking soda in and then just started pouring in the vinegar. HUGE MESS! My thanks to my darling girls who came to Mom’s rescue with lots of towels. Anyway just a reminder. I used lavender essential oil in mine, so now I have lavender laundry detergent and lavender fabric softener. My clothes should smell great.

Today, we have been busy with school. We did a batch of apples in the steam juicer. We got 1 gal and 1 qt. of juice. We then run the apples through the Roma sauce maker and got enough applesauce to make 3 qts of applebutter. YUM! I also made a batch of homemade laundry soap.

Colors here are at their peak this week. I hope to get more pictures to share. We have been having rain but it looks like it will clear up this evening. Hubby has been busy making a king size bed for Jess and Dave. I will show you all pictures when he gets it finished. I think it looks beautiful. Here he is working on one of the posts for the headboard. I think I actually managed to get this picture without him knowing it. He was deep in concentration.

Tonights supper will be baked pork chops with potatoes and carrots, pumpkin pie for dessert. I guess I better get busy, I think everyone is getting hungry. Enjoy your day and God bless.

Today I will be taking some of my homemade laundry soap to a store here in Floyd to see if it will sell. This is what the package looks like. What do you all think? I got the recipe and the package idea from a blogger friend of mine. You can read her blog at http://theblessedhearth.blogspot.com/. I really like this soap and I am hoping others will too.

I also want to get out all my old schoolbooks. Vicki is going to help me try to sell them on ebay. Later today, we plan on doing a picnic with them at Smartsview Park. FUN, FUN, FUN.

Today I am making laundry soap. I am trying a new recipe. I have experienced some problems with the old recipe I have been using. I have been making my own laundry soap for about 2 years now. The problem is that my towels, dishcloths, washcloths, napkins etc have become very non absorbent. It is like they have a water repellent on them. I am not joking. I can have a spill, put a napkin down on it, leave it and come back in about l min. and the spill is still there. The napkin is just laying there on top of the spill. I have tried lots of different things to solve this problem and none of them seem to help. I have used vinegar in the rinse, used fabric softener, not used fabric softener. It is still the same. I came across this recipe at the Hillbilly Housewife. It is a little different from my old one. We’ll see how it works. Hopefully this will fix my problem.

Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe

1 bar of Fels Naptha soap, shaved

4 cups of hot water to melt the soap

3 gallons of hot water

1 cup of borax

2 cups of washing soda

1 cup of baking soda

1 large Rubbermaid container about 4-5 gallons size

Here’s what you do:
Grate the soap into a saucepan. You can use either a box grater or a food processor for this. I recommend you do not use whatever tool you use for grating soap with food. I was able to buy an extra food processor very inexpensively at a thrift store.

Add 4 cups of hot water to the pan. Simmer on low until the soap melts completely into the water.

Add borax, washing soda and baking soda to the hot water. Simmer on low until it desolves with the soap. If the mixture is not melting, add more water if needed.

Add 3 gallons of hot water to the large container. Add the mixture to the hot water. Mix with a large spoon until it
completely dissolves.
Let cool overnight. You will notice that it turns into a thick gel. Use 1 cup of this homemade laundry detergent per load of laundry.